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London’s National Portrait Gallery is currently behind
North Face, an exhibition comprising ten photographs of famous people from the north-east, at a variety of galleries and museums across the region.

Although there are some undeniably crowd-pleasing choices here, from Ridley ‘Blade Runner’ Scott to Jack Charlton, the overall impression is that the exhibition doesn’t appear to have been curated with the average north-easterner in mind.

For a start, the majority of people probably won’t even have heard of artist Stella Vine or soprano Sheila Armstrong, who are both deemed worthy. Furthermore, there aren’t really any young, contemporary faces here; you’d be hard pushed to find anyone the right side of 40. And, while Sting is undoubtedly famous, there are very few Geordies who would cite him as one of their most cherished alumni. Frankly irritating, more like.

Where, exactly, are Ant and Dec? Why isn’t Alan Shearer honoured here? What about most of the cast of Auf Wiedersehen Pet? Plus, it would be nice if Sunderland got at least a mention, wouldn’t it? Surely The Futureheads or Lauren Laverne are worthy of a portrait?